Love, Chloe - Alessandra Torre Page 0,12
put the earrings in their proper place: my earlobes. I glanced at my watch, realized I had less than twenty minutes to escape before Cammie got home, and called Benta.
“Want to treat your poor best friend to dinner?”
The girl didn’t hesitate, and forty-five minutes later we were sitting at a rooftop bar and ordering drinks.
“Cute earrings,” she noted, gesturing with her straw toward my ears.
“Thanks.” I waved to the bartender, trying to divert this conversation to appetizers.
“They look like something I saw a few weeks ago. In a box. From Viiiiicc.” She stretched his name into three syllables.
Shit. I stopped trying to get the bartender’s attention and turned to her. “You knew?”
Of course she knew. Cammie couldn’t get her eyebrows waxed without a sidekick so Benta had been the first call made when Vic dropped off the gift. They’d decided I was better off not knowing and hid it.
“I told her it was too risky keeping them at her house, especially with you staying there.” She rolled her eyes, as if to say, Rookie mistake…
My irritation mounted. “I can handle Vic. It wasn’t up to either of you to keep that from me.”
“Oh please!” Benta’s cheeks flushed with heat. “Do you remember what you were like after that breakup? How you lived on your couch, binging on reality TV and subjecting every poor food delivery guy to your sob story?” It was true. I still couldn’t order from my favorite pizza place. “I know you. Right now, you’re thinking that you should call Vic and thank him for the earrings. Let me tell you, Vic bought that present with the change rattling around in his cupholder. It’s not like he thought out the gift and is sitting by the phone, anxiously waiting on your call.”
I shut my mouth, my witty comeback dampened, the picture she drew of Vic exactly what I had been envisioning.
Benta leaned forward. “Forget Vic. Let me set you up with this guy we’ve hired. He’s gorgeous, Chloe, and he’s hilarious.”
“Yeah?” I looked at her. “Then why aren’t you dating him?”
“He’s too passive for me. I need a man who’ll fight back when I kick.”
Too passive. Wow, she knew how to sell ’em. “Pass. I could use some singledom.”
“You’ve been single eight months. It’s been long enough.”
Food came, saving me from a response, and I pulled out my phone. Checked my email and saw a few from Nicole. Skimmed their contents and murmured support while Benta checked out the bartender’s ass.
The last email caused me to look up, catching her stealing a sip of my drink. I snagged it back. “Nicole just emailed me, saying she’ll be in Vegas in March.”
“For what?”
“The …” I scrolled down the email. “Adult Entertainment Expo. Not sure what that is. Sounds boring.”
At Benta’s snort—mid-crunch of a shrimp—I jerked my head up, just in time to see her eyes water as she pounded her chest. She waved off my help, grabbing her ice water and holding up a finger as she drank.
When she finally came up for air, her voice wheezed. “The Adult Entertainment Expo? I forgot you were working for the condom supplier of the world.”
“Why? What is it?” My phone wouldn’t cooperate, a Google search taking as long as Benta to put me out of my misery. I looked at her impatiently.
“It’s a porn convention. In Vegas. Too bad she isn’t taking you.”
A porn convention? I would have doubted the intel, but Benta would know, her family created an online dating website that makes Tinder look like a kiddie ride. The woman reviewed sex statistics and dating trends over breakfast. She laughed at my look and grabbed my drink, toasting me while finally getting the last of her shrimp—and my daiquiri—down.
A porn convention. Working for Nicole got stranger every day.
11. Parenting 101
I rolled the ball across the floor, Chanel scampering after it, her nails clicking across the floor. My phone rang and I pushed to my feet, grabbing it off the desk, the name on the display making my heart jump.
“Mom?” I shut the door and leaned against it.
“Hey darling. We were just calling to check in.”
“I’ve left you a bunch of messages.”
“Oh, I know. We’ve just been busy.”
“For two months?” My voice was hard, a tone I had never used with her before.
“Don’t be a pill, Chloe. We’re dealing with a lot right now.”
So was I. I swallowed the response. As tough as my new life might be, it didn’t compare to what they must have been dealing with.